Defender Josh Battle has had his appendix removed, dealing Hawthorn another major blow for their big AFL match against Melbourne.

The All-Australian went to hospital with abdominal pain on Thursday and had surgery in the evening. Bodie Ryan is his most likely replacement for the Saturday afternoon game in Launceston.

While the Hawks will regain forward Jack Gunston (foot) for the first time since late May, Karl Amon and Ned Reeves also went out of the side this week with knee problems.

Earlier this week, the Hawks ruled out Nick Watson because of a hamstring issue.

Apart from Battle and Amon, the Hawthorn backline will also be without fellow mainstays Josh Weddle (suspension) and Jarman Impey (hamstring).

Hawthorn brought in rugby league convert Matt Hill and Noah Mraz for their AFL debuts and Will McCabe was also recalled.

Seventh-placed Melbourne brought back Changkuoth Jiath, Latrelle Pickett, Bailey Laurie and Harrison Petty for the match against the third-placed Hawks.

Melbourne easily beat Hawthorn in mid-May at the MCG by 39 points and Hawks coach Sam Mitchell called it probably their worst game of the season.

"It will be a very different game - games of football are a bit like fingerprints, they're all different," he said.

"But some of the framework of this game, we need to make sure we're much better-positioned to perform consistently ... than we were last time, because they taught us a bit of a lesson."

Demons captain Max Gawn is an obvious threat - especially without Reeves to partner Lloyd Meek in the ruck.

Finn Maginness restricted in-form Melbourne midfielder Kysaiah Pickett to just 13 possessions in round 11, but he is not in the team for Launceston.

Mitchell said Daniel Turner and Kade Chandler were other in-form Demons who demanded close attention.

"There are a lot of threats in their team, but we need to balance that with being threatening ourselves," Mitchell added.